Need some opinions and help here guys.

On Saturday, I relocated my JL 500/1 amp to under the passenger side plastic piece in the trunk. It fits perfectly.

Yesterday, I installed my JL 10W6V2 in a temporary enclosure until my 4080 box arives.

Last night, while driving at higher speeds or 90+ (up to 140), I noticed the headlights dimming at strong bass notes. Keep in mind that the system had been playing for about 15 minutes prior to getting up to the higher speeds.

I've got two theories:

1) At higher speeds, the electrical system is more heavily taxed by vehicle systems & the amp combined, so it robs power from the headlights.

2) Due to the amp being mounted under the plastic piece and subsequently, the trunk carpeting, the amp is overheating, reducing output, and drawing more current to compensate.

Now my first theory doesn't really make too much sense to myself, but if anyone can chime in, then great. It's just that when I had my amp mounted to my Zenclosure box, to my knowledge I never remembered the headlights dimming.

The second theory could hold water due to how the 500/1 operates; many amps will go into "protect mode" at overtemp and kill output, while the 'slash series' amps will actually reduce output until temps are back in check. But if that is the case, I'm not sure why it would draw MORE current from the battery.

I'm just a little confused here and would welcome some input from the gurus.

I already have an idea to retrofit a 120mm computer case fan in a location that will blow air over the top of the heatsink of the amp. It will obviously only circulate the ambient air, but will not allow the air between the heatsink fins to stratify.

Sorry for the long-winded post.

 

Hey John, I have a brand new kicker amp that is fully digital and has a fan built in. I would be willing to let you try and see if that solves your problem that way you know if it is the amp or may be you just need a a capacitor.

 

Thanks Eldin. I'll try my idea for the fan and see what other people say. If it still does it, maybe I'll try your amp. What size is it?

 

You are welcome. Its relatively small. Its kicker sx650.1. Just let me know. I used to run two sx1250.1 in my acura pushing 4 Kicker L7s and never had an issue w/ dimming lights or anything.

 

Actually, you'd be suprised... I'll have to show you where and how the amp is currently mounted. It's so perfectly in there that even taking it out would suck.

But that's cool and it's an option. I just looked online and it's roughly the same physical size and can give 650W @ 2ohms.

 

Its actually 7xx watts. Kicker amps are underated. and they come with the certificate, but yeah I will have to see how you have it set up now. It looked really nice the last time.

 

post pics of the install when you get a chance and have you checked all you wires never know it could be somthing simple

 

check you ground wire make sure you have it in a good place not grounded with other stuff. i have that amp and i dont have any power issues at those speeds but the amp is not maxed out only about half way
oh if it over heats i think the red light will come on.

 

what everyone said is correct. make sure you have plenty of airflow around the amp, and double check the ground, if you didn't sand the paint under it, do that